Back to the vet

Mia is sick again.  It started yesterday and into last night (1am and 4:30am bathroom emergencies).  Just now she pooped what looked like water, and clear and pink jelly.  We're going to the vet on Friday... and until then I'm sure that the constant loud noises that her stomach are making will continue.  Poor girl.

Bathing

Mia had a Sunday afternoon bath on the deck this weekend.  I thought it was going to be a horrifying experience, but it actually works pretty well - much better than in the bathroom anyhow.  I changed out her good collar with an old one, and then tied her leash to a strong post.  Mia normally loses it when feeling confined, but she got over it pretty quickly.  She obviously was not enjoying getting cold water poured all over her during the rise stage (even though it was a super hot day) but she didn't mind the scrubbing and she may have really liked the towel drying part.  She knocked over the bucket at one point so I lost half my water, but it turned out that I didn't need as much as I thought.  After the bath, I rewarded her by taking her on a walk and air drying her some more.  By the time we were out walking, I think she entirely forgot about the whole bath situation and she was smelling So Much Better!  Summer deck baths here we come.

Her Remote

Sometimes she's just so much like us.

She Should Be Committed

I think my dog may be brain damaged.  She goes through these cycles of being afraid of everything and then being afraid of nothing.  Currently, she's getting stuck in the family room again... like she doesn't want to walk past the fridge and she'll just stand there and whine.  She walked in there just fine, but now she has forgotten that it was safe and is now stuck in here.

The worst it's ever been is when she was afraid of everything and 1. we had to carry her from the office to the deck to go outside, and 2. we had to bring her through the front door out to the car because she wouldn't go anywhere near the hallway to the garage.  3.  She also refused to join us in the family room and confined herself to the office unless we came and picked her up.  It was all really annoying and confusing.

We had always thought that her fears coincided with her not feeling well with her tummy troubles, but her tummy seems to be just fine right now so this has come out of nowhere.

She is determined to be the first dog ever sent to therapy.  Speaking of which, maybe we should get her some Xanax.

Stinky Feet

We have a serious problem.  Mia's feet smell So Mother Effing Bad!!  Sure, she doesn't smell all that great because daycare really smells like stinky dog and that's fine.... but her feet are making me want to vomit.  Sometimes I'll wash them off with some soap and water, but it only sort of helps and it comes back the next day.  I feel like I can smell them all over the house, and it's So Gross.  She lays next to me on the couch, and her feet are wafting towards my face.  I can't take it!

After a little bit of research I learned that her feet may be sweating.  I guess dogs can sweat out of their noses and their feet, and since the fur around her pads may be trapping the moisture it just starts to smell... horribley.  Is there another solution or is there an easier way to wash a dog's feet than to rub a wet wash cloth all over them while she tries to run away?

I'm telling you, it's bad.

It's Back

The poops are back... poor girl.
I have no idea what to do about her tummy.

Comfort is King

Sometimes she's so human, this is not one of those times.

She's Still Crazy

We've always known that our dog was a little crazy, but we just assumed that rescue dogs come with some baggage.  She's the sweetest dog in the world around us, but there are many moments out in public that she's not very sweet at all.  I just found out that she was pulled out of the active puppy group at daycare back in February because she was too much for many of young puppies or older active dogs to handle, and she now has playgroups in much smaller controlled settings with a handful of other dogs that she is friends with or one on one playtime (always with supervision) - all depending on which dogs are there that day.  She apparently has 2 best friends at daycare, so that's good at least, she can't be friends with all of them.

I was surprised by the need to pull her out of the general public of dogs - but I guess most parents think their kids / dogs are super wonderful, when in reality that isn't the truth.  These smaller playgroups may actually be benefiting her though because she's getting more correction and bad behavior is instantly stopped and avoided unlike in a larger group when it takes a few seconds for someone to step in through all the other dogs.  At home and around the neighborhood, she's really been fantastic and maybe daycare has been helping that - or maybe having a very consistent Saturday and Sunday long walk have helped things.  We see other people and dogs all the time now, and she rarely reacts with a bark or a whine.  Most of the time she just watches what's going on, and she's able to greet other people and dogs nicely - unlike back in October when she was a real mortifying jerk about it.

It's all sort of funny to me because what we really wanted was a happy go lucky lab with a nice temperament.  I'm not sure that I would go the Petfinder route again... without being able to meet the dog first, I think that was really the key.  Our friends found a local dog that they were able to meet before bringing home recently and he's the most chill dog ever.  Mia is hardly ever chill, especially around kids or guests.  I'm pretty sure she's been terrorized by kids in her past life.  She has been able to get over her fear of men, even really big scary looking men, but so far she does still have a fear of kids or people who are smaller than average.  I've been thinking about doing a regular obedience class with her this summer to sort of keep her sharp... we'll see though.